At the end of each school year, schools across the country prepare the final versions of their yearbooks. Typically, the yearbooks are prepared in sections, so that much of the work is completed prior to the end of the final semester. However, a significant portion of the information, such as spring events, athletic accomplishments, and so on, cannot be finished prior to the end of the semester.
The yearbook index may reference the pages of the yearbook in relationship to students, faculty, student organizations, homerooms, advertising, etc. A thorough index references not only the occurrence of the students' names in the text of the yearbook, but will also reference each page upon which a photograph of the student or faculty member appears. Thus, a great deal of work is spent generating the index, a final copy of which cannot be completed until the body of the yearbook is finished.
Another problem in generating the yearbook is the proofing of the text. Heretofore, spell-checking programs have been an unacceptable aid in proofing the text because such a large portion of the yearbook text comprises students' names which are not part of the spell-checking software's dictionary. Since the spell-checking software will stop at each word not in its dictionary, use of the software is frustrating, and consequently, conventional spell-checking software is not used.
Because most schools have approximately the same year-end date, the yearbook staff of each school finishes the yearbook at approximately the same time. The page layout is sent to the publisher for production of the final copy. In order to timely fulfill the publishing requirements, it is advantageous to complete the yearbook as early as possible. Thus, it is important that the index and the text may be quickly and correctly generated.
Thus, a need has arisen for a reliable, efficient method of providing a yearbook index.